In Bethlehem: A tribute to Irish-American vaudeville of Harrigan and Hart

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Harrigan & Hart were a popular songwriting team of the late 19th century.

Harrigan & Hart were a popular songwriting team of the late 19th century. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Dave HowellSpecial to The Morning Call

“H-A-double-R-I-G-A-N spells Harrigan ...”

You might have heard those song lyrics (from the 1908 Broadway musical “Fifty Miles from Boston”) and know about the composer, George M. Cohan. But the man who inspired Cohan, Edward “Ned” Harrigan, has been largely forgotten, even though he could be credited as the originator of American musical comedy.

Harrigan’s songs, sketches and plays have retained their charm over the years, with their realistic portrayals of the lives of poor New York City immigrants, especially the Irish.

Chris Simmons and Murray Callahan, with pianist Valerie Schoenk, are returning to those rowdy days of the late 19th century for “A Tribute to Harrigan & Hart: Irish-American Vaudeville,” Feb. 17 at Moravian College’s Foy Hall. The show is being presented by Bethlehem’s Celtic Cultural Alliance.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Harrigan & Hart were a popular songwriting team of the late 19th century

Harrigan & Hart were a popular songwriting team of the late 19th century (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Simmons, Callahan and Schoenk were long-time performers in Simmons’ "An Evening at a British Music Hall," which was performed in Bethlehem and other cities and towns for 40 years, ending in 2014.

Simmons and Callahan will use an onstage rack of clothes to quickly transform into many of the colorful roles played by Harrigan, Tony Hart and other actors of Harrigan’s theater group.

“Harrigan wrote naturalistic rather than stereotypical characters,” Simmons says. “His were less stereotypical than you might imagine, considering the times. Other playwrights would write standard melodramas that had plot elements that included last-minute rescues by members of the upper classes.

“He used people you might recognize on the street. Audiences would see their lives reflected onstage in a positive way. It was not just escapism for them.”

The show will be an overview of Harrigan’s life and career, with songs and three or four sketches framed by narration largely taken from interviews he gave during his life.

Simmons and Callahan performed some of this material in Simmons’ Music Hall and in Harrigan and Hart tributes presented by Irish musician Mick Moloney. Members of Harrigan’s family who saw the Moloney show at New York University will attend the Foy Hall tribute.

Harrigan (1844-1911) and his partner Hart (1855-1891) were megastars, before the term was invented, for the poor Irish immigrants who flooded to New York City during the 19th century, 2 million between 1840 and 1860 alone. The team also gathered admirers that included Mark Twain and William Tecumseh Sherman.

Simmons says Harrigan was “half Yankee and half Irish” and he was not even Catholic, and he grew up in the Irish slums in New York City. He immersed himself in the life of the city to get material. He bought the clothes off the backs of street people for costumes, and even hired a few of them to appear in his plays.

Harrigan wrote the lyrics to more than 200 songs with music composed by his father-in-law David Braham. Harrigan, only 10 years younger than Braham, married his daughter Annie in 1876. He also wrote sketches that were performed at the end of variety shows. The sketches, ran for 45 or so minutes, eventually were expanded into full-length plays.

Harrigan met Hart (whose birth name was Anthony Cannon) in Chicago in the 1870s. They became successful enough as a performing team to start their own company and buy their own theater. The flamboyant Hart was sent to a reformatory as a youth, from which he escaped and entered show business. He was known for his versatility, especially in women’s roles.

“Some of Harrigan’s shows would have 100 people in the cast. People stayed with him for years. He was one of few people who paid for rehearsal time,” Simmons says. One critic called the actors “the merriest group of local trash that ever trod the boards.”

Harrigan’s best known shows were those with the name of Mulligan. “There were eight plays of Mulligan Guards,” Simmons says. They were an extension of the duo’s most popular stage bit. “They follow the fortunes of Dan Mulligan and his wife Cornelia more or less chronologically.” They also highlighted the conflicts among the city’s various ethnic groups in comic fashion. The Mulligan Guards spoofed the many private militias that were like social clubs that gave their members an excuse to drink.

The Harrigan and Hart partnership dissolved in 1885; sources differ about the reason for the breakup. “They did not air their dirty laundry,” Simmons says. The duo insisted publicly that the split was amicable. Hart fell from the heights of success after he left Harrigan. He died at age 6 after suffering from syphilis and paresis.

The tribute will begin with a speech given at the Ned Harrigan Club after its namesake’s death, and then look back on earlier times. A fire in the 1890s caused Harrigan to lose his last theater, and he had to dissolve his troupe. He had somewhat gone out of fashion, although he continued to tour. Late in his career he appeared at the Academy of Music in Allentown, which was at the northeast corner of Sixth and Linden streets, a half block from the Lyric Theater, now Miller Symphony Hall.

“He was remembered for a long time,” Simmons says. “His songs were almost like folk songs, passed down through generations.”

Unfortunately, Harrigan’s legacy has not been preserved in films or recordings. The musical “Harrigan ’n Hart” closed after four performances on Broadway in 1985, despite featuring Mark Hamill as Hart and incorporating material found by Harrigan’s youngest daughter Nedda. Nedda was married 1945-1988 to Joshua Logan, who directed the films “Picnic,” “South Pacific” and “Mister Roberts.” Logan failed in attempts to reprise the story of Harrigan and Hart.

Simmons is a stickler for accuracy. He has a number of notebooks about Harrigan and Hart, and even a program printed on silk that was created for every 100th performance of each Harrigan and Hart play.

Be advised that tobacco chewers in the gallery can spit on each other, but will be ejected if they do it on those in the orchestra seats. Throwing spitballs at the actors may be permitted, but might cause you to be hit by a bamboo pole. And fights between rival gangs are expected to take place outside the premises.